A REFERENCE BY THE LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR IN COUNCrr, SET OUT IN ORDER IN COUNCIL NO. 533 DATED OCTOBER 22, 2009 CONCERNING THE CONSTRITUTIONALITY OF S. 293 OF THE CRIMINAL CODE OF CANADA,

R.S.C. 1985, C. C-46

AFFIDAVIT

I, Stephen A. Kent, of the Department of Sociology; University of Alberta; Edmonton, Alberta, Canada;make oath and say as follows:

1. I am a Professor of Sociology at University of Alberta; and as such have personal knowledge of the facts and matters hereinafter deposed to, save and except where stated to be made upon information and belief, and where so stated, I verily believe them to be true.

2. Attached to this affidavit as Exhibit "A" is a true copy of my expert opinion dated July 15; 2010. It contains my honestly held opinions.

SWORN BEFORE ME at the City of )

Edmonton, in the Province of , erta, this 15th ) S k ~ Ll b f

day o\July,2010. :'l,:}; /) ) .~ C;\A t ) , EM

0c />/,. // ) Stephen A. Kent

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A Co~i:;;sioner for rliking Affidavits )

within: Alberta )

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This is Exhibit "A" referred to in the Affidavit of Stephen A. Kent

Sworn before me at Edmonton This 15th day of July, 201

1. Introduction

The Canadian organization, Stop Polygamy In Canada, invited me to submit a reference

opinion concerning the effects of polygamy as practices by he fundamentalist Mormon

communities in North America. I am a sociologist of religion at the University of Alberta,

specializing in the study of alternative religions. Fundamentalist Mormon polygamy is one of

many groups upon which I have published.' In this opinion, unless I state otherwise, I restrict all

references to polygamous communities to fundamentalist Mormon practitioners in North

America. I attach a c.v. that sets out in detail my qualifications and experience.

I have prepared this report for use by Stop Polygamy in Canada, which is an intervenor in

duty under the Rule 11-2 of the British Columbia Court Rules to assist the court and not assume

the role of advocate for any party or intervenor, and I certify that wrote this report in conformity

with that duty. If called upon to give testimony, I will do so in conformity with that duty.

2. Research Methodology

Social scicntists=-scholars in academic disciplines such as sociology and anthropology

who apply scientific methods to study the social world-s-have conducted many of the analyses

about polygamy. Most of these methods are qualitative, and include participant observation,

3

various kinds of field work, interviews, reviews of documents, speeches, court cases, biographies, autobiographies, and media accounts. Validity and reliability occur within qualitative research in part when researchers receive similar, mutually confirming information from multiple sources and different types of sources. When possible, social scientists also collect quantifiable information (possibly including age, gender, income, marital status, attitudes on certain topics, etc.). Legal scholars, historians, and religious studies scholars also have studied polygamy, as have a number of reporters and journalists whose readership likely has special interest in the practice. Together all of these professionals are contributing to the understanding of polygamy, and I borrow from all of them according to who seems to have presented the most verifiable and reliable information on a particular aspect of the larger polygamy topic?

According to various accounts, anywhere between 21,000 to 100,000 fundamentalist Mormon polygamists in the two countries (with additional practitioners in Mexico)? The uncertainty over the numbers of practitioners and their general distrust of the outside world makes the collection of accurate statistics about them impossible. Consequently, almost all of the research into fundamentalist Mormonism involves qualitative methods. Having reviewed an extensive variety and number of these kinds of sources, my opinion is that polygamy has widespread negative effects upon the human rights of children, as well as on the health of welfare of many people who live in and around the communities that practice it. Specifically in this reference opinion, I discuss: the potential ofhann to the health and welfare of girls and young women; the high occurrence of incest; the issue of infant deaths and genetic deformities; and the human rights issues related to the frequent fundamentalist Mormon practice of arranged marriages. In addition, I discuss the displacement of young men in typically takes place

4 polygamous communities, and often the frequent reliance on welfare and governmental support

that polygamy usually needs to operate. Finally, I discuss the authoritarian, theocratic operation of polygamous communities as threats to the rights of citizens within pluralistic, democratic states like the United States and Canada. Although I realize that the particulars of polygamous practice vary to some degree between the groups themselves and the historical periods in which they have operated, these variations do not mitigate the detrimental impact that the practice has on many of the persons who live under its influence and on the North American societies in which it operates. Abundant evidence now exists about significant personal and social damage caused by polygamy. In my opinion, polygamy involves serious violations of human rights.

3. Incest and Inbreeding

Incest (defined here as "sexual union with a near relative?") is a widespread problem in these groups, which dates back to the earliest days of Mormonism.s The likelihood of incest increases with family size, social isolation, and rurallocation6-all of which are factors that describe most contemporary polygamous communities. In her study of fourAmerican polygamous groups, Janet Bennion explained the relationship between these factors and intrafamily violence and sexual abuse/incest:

The issues of father absence and economic deprivation are intertwined. . .. In the case of the polygamous orders, most people live well below the official U.S. poverty level of $17,000 a year for a family of four: ...

[B]y looking at he impoverished households, one can see the disadvantage for the

5

women. The polygamous wives are often dependent on their husband's priesthood stewardships [i.e., oversight of land or businesses] or the charity of the community to gain access to food and clothing for their children. They, therefore, are not likely to leave an abusive situation unless they have an outside relative--one who has not disowned them, that is=-who can provide them with economic support. If they have ajob oftheir own they are more able to leave the sect .... Impoverished parents often share their frustration with their children through beatings, verbal abuse, as well as sexual abuse.

Therefore, in an overcrowded, poor household, sibling abuse may be a problem and the violence a father doles out onto his wife and other children is often ignored. And finally, in economically deprived families, the father will often go further from home for work, at longer intervals, in order to access better jobs, which then leads to the father absence issue. It is well known in the literature ... that make absence creates opportunities for sexual abuse, since the man is not often present during the imprinting years of his children's lives. He becomes sexually attracted to them as they 'blossom.t

In the contemporary period, reports of incest are widespread, and come from several polygamous groups."

For example, a member ofthe Kingstons belt-beat his daughter (Mary Ann Kingston) for fleeing an arranged marriage to his brother (his daughter's uncle), and in 1999 a Utah court convicted that father of third-degree felony child abuse for his actions," Ajury found the uncle "guilty of one count of incest and one of unlawful sexual contact with a minor," and received up to a ten-year sentence.l" Three years later (in 2002), independent polygamist Thomas Arthur

6 Green was convicted of "rape of a child" for having '''spiritually married'" stepdaughter Linda

Kunz when she was thirteen, and then having a child with her "four months after her fourteenth birthday"-a conviction upheld by the Supreme Court of Utah. I l Writing about her own convoluted family relationships, Canadian Debbie Palmer (who grew up in Bountiful, British Columbia) explained:

Several of my stepsons were assigned to marry my sisters, so I also became a sister-in-law to my own stepchildren. After my mother's father was assigned to marry one of my second husband's daughters as a second wife, I became my own greatgrandmother. The step-daughter became my step-grandmother and I her step-mother, so when I gave birth to two sons with her father, my own sons became my great-uncles and I was their great-great-grandmother .12

Given these complex, sometimes incestuous entanglements, no wonder genetic disorders are a growing problem.

4. Infant Deaths, Genetic Disorders, and Unmarked Children's Graves

More troubling is the fact that the FLDS has its own graveyards containing unmarked children's graves. According to former-member-turned-critic, Flora Jessop:

[Anti-polygamy critic] Linda Walker and I went out to the two cemeteries in the twin towns [of Hildale and Colorado City ]-one was called Babyland, because it was just for babies. In those two graveyards we found 324 marked graves for children under eighteen years of age. Fifty-eight babies were buried in unmarked graves.v'

7

A similar graveyard exists within the Allreds, or the Apostolic United Brethren. Based upon field work that began in 1989 and extended over half-a-decade, Bennion reported:

Over the years, I have heard of at least seven children who died during childbirth. Two additional cases of infant death were from internal deformities during the first year of life. Deaths such as these are rarely spoken of public[ly], and often, in the cases of death at childbirth, the infants are quickly buried in the [group's] graveyard without ceremony. No official records of births or deaths are kept"

By refusing to keep records (or record births and deaths with public health authorities), no one can speak with certainty about why these infants died, or what measures might be taken to reduce deaths in the future.

One of the few instances in which statistical evidence does exist about the impact of polygamy among fundamentalist Mormons is in relation to a genetic disorder known as fumarase deficiency. This deficiency is very rare outside of the FLDS, but it pervades at least two fundamentalist Mormon communities. The effects ofthis deficiency are tragic-seizures, water replacing large areas of brain matter, mental retardation, severe mobility problems (including the inability to sit), severe speech impediments, frequently early deaths, etc.IS "By the late 1990s ... , fumarase deficiency was occurring in the greatest concentration in the world among the fundamentalist Mormon polygamists of northern Arizona and southern Utah. Of even greater concern was the fact that the recessive gene that triggers the disease was rapidly spreading to thousands of individuals living in the community because of decades of inbreeding. ,,16 As of early February 2006, there were twenty diagnosed cases in the FLDS communityj ' but "experts

8 say the number of children afflicted in the FLDS community is expected to steadily increase as a

result of decades of inbreeding between two of the polygamous sect's founding families-the

Barlows and the Jessops.,,18

Similar, and equally tragic, birth defects appear within the Kingston clan. "Among the

polygamous Kingstons, a number of children have been born with birth defects, among them one

born with two vaginas and two uteruses but not vaginal or bowel openings. Outwardly, she

appeared to have no sex organs."!" Other birth defects that likely contain a genetic component

include preeclampsia, children born without fingernails, dwarfism, microcephaly, blindness,

spina bifida, Down syndrome, kidney disease and abnonnalleg and ann joints.i" One of Thomas

Green's wives came from Colorado City, and a child of theirs suffers from a brain disorder

named lissencephaly." In sum, the incestuous practices of at least two FLDS communities are

non-fundamentalist women do convert into the practice.t'' but a large number of brides

presumably come from within each respective group (or sometimes from a related group).

9

Two consequences result from the demand for young brides as the men age. First, because the men are aware of competitors who also are attempting to get young brides, they seek younger and younger girls in order to 'celestially marry' them before someone else does.

Second, the older men must eliminate the competition for those young brides--the unmarried boys and young men who are roughly the same ages as the targeted unmarried females.f Both of these consequences raise serious issues involving human rights abuses.

Arranged marriages for women of any age involve human rights violations, according to the 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Article 16 of that convention calls for women to have the same rights as men to enter into marriage and "freely to choose a spouse and to enter into marriage only with their free and full consent.,,28 Specifically involving underage girls, the same article in Convention pronounces, "The betrothal and the marriage of a child shall have no legal effect and all necessary action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify a minimum age for marriage as to make the regulation of marriages in an official registry compulsory ... " _29

6. Displaced Young Men-"The Lost Boys"-and Working Conditions for

Youth

Regarding the second consequence of polygamy-the pressure to eliminate male competition for young brides (sometimes called the surplus males issue)-the FLDS group has expelled hundreds of teens and young men from its communities, while others simply left. Estimates range from 400 to a thousand young men fled or suffered expulsion during a five-tosix-year period in the first years of this century_3o Sometimes families even dropped off their

10 banished sons in southern Utah and Arizona towns, forcing them to fend for themselves, despite

the fact that they likely had not finished high school, had limited skills (probably concentrated in

the construction trades), little money, and extremely limited experience with the outside world.

Alternatively, for the males whom FLDS leaders did not want to lose or who could provide

needed labor for member-owned businesses, these leaders sent some boys and young men to a

"reform retreat" comprising manual labor and church teachings in Colorado City." Leaders sent

other young men to the FLDS community in British Columbia, where Winston Bleckmore put

them to work in his or other polygamists' logging-related businesses.f They worked for lower

than minimum wages in harsh working conditions that often were dangerous and resulted in

injuries.33 Similarly, the working conditions in Colorado City/Hildale were equally dangerous,

involving the illegal use of minors and minors using power tools." "In one case, four underage

boys employed by a Colorado City company suffered broken hips, knees, and head injuries after

falling off a church roof while working in Utah.,,35 One autobiographer reported, "I would later

see kids come back from Canada either broken or cowed, the spark gone from them-e-or so

rebellious that they left the church at once.,,36

Less information exists about working conditions within Kingston clan businesses, but

what little there is suggests that significant labor issues involving pay and safety exist for the

young men (and for that matter, the young girls and the adults) who work for some of these

companies. In an extensive 1998 investigation of the history and business dealings of this group,

Profits were extracted from young laborers and the sacrifice of the many Kingston

11

wives living in squalor with scores of children, say ex-members and former state investigators.

'The children are rather sheltered and kept out of the mainstream of society and at a young age enlisted to work for a Kingston company,' said a Utah welfare fraud investigator. 'They got their needs met, food and clothing and things were given to them, but often times the food ... was produce and meat out of their stores that could not be sold. Expired food was the mainstay of how they were living.,37

Some thirteen years earlier, an article in the Wall Street Journal indicated:

Many [members] work at clan enterprises for a fraction of the wages that similar work elsewhere would pay. A staple of their diets is wheat sprouts, which they call 'grass.' But groups of clan members also go around to supermarket dumpsters to collect discarded produce."

Finally, a 1998 editorial in the Salt Lake Tribune mentioned that many "children, especially girls ... are made to work long days in family business, often paid in scrip to be redeemed only in family-owned enterprises.v'" Safety information exists about one of the companies, a garbage disposal company that a Kingston family member owned called A-I Disposal, and between 1993 and 1998, "A-l Disposal has been cited for 245 state and federal safety violations and paid $15,000 in fines to the Utah Department of Transportation. ,,40 Every indication, therefore, is that many young men and women work in Kingston clan businesses from their teenage years onward, often in dangerous conditions for very low wages and poor benefits (which may include sub-

12

standard food).

Beyond any local or federal laws that these groups may be breaking regarding their teen and adult workers, basic issues of human rights are at stake. The United Nations' International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which entered into force in 1976 and which Canada ratified on May 19th of that year,41 recognizes:

the right of everyone to the enjoyment of just and favourable conditions of work which ensure, in particular: (a) remuneration which provides all workers, as a minimum, with (i) Fair wages ... ; [including] (ii) A decent living for themselves and their families ... ;

I can conclude that labor exploitation is a common factor in two of the large polygamous organizations, likely affecting the lives of thousands of its members. Moreover, the substandard wages and inadequate investments in safety that characterize these polygamous companies undercut non-FLDS competitors who comply with labour safety laws.43 In summary, my opinion is that the numerous problems regarding the lost boys and child labour are direct results of polygamy.

7. Welfare Fraud and Dependence on the State

Claims of poverty cannot explain all the state financial dependence and exploitation that pervades many of these polygamous groups, especially because some exposed cases involve groups that were quite financially well-off. What also may explain some of these cases is an

13 attitude toward outsiders that first developed in early Mormonism and seems to have carried over

within the contemporary polygamous sects.44 Early ex-Mormon critic, Fanny Stenhouse,

reported that the Mormon leaders of her era believed that the Latter-day Saints were the people of

God to whom He had given "all the wealth and substance of the earth, and therefore it was no sin

for them to help themselves-they were but taking their own. To over-reach or defraud their

enemies was facetiously called by the Mormons 'milking the Gentiles. ,,~5 Contemporary

polygamists call similar actions "bleeding the Beast.,~6

In what now seems to have been an example of bleeding the Beast, Utah welfare workers

in the early-to-mid 1980s uncovered a massive fraud case involving the Kingstons. It discovered

that "at least four wives and 29 children of Mr. [John Ortell] Kingston collected hundreds of

thousands of dollars in public assistance over ten years, even though Mr. Kingston was easily

capable of supporting them." He was "a multimillionaire who controls a $70 million polygamy-

based business empire reaching into five states.,,47 In "the biggest single recovery of child

support ever made in the U.S.," Kingston repaid the Utah government $250,000, and also

"agreed to repay welfare benefits given in behalf of children of at least three other clan

women.,,48 While John Ortell Kingston avoided prison by his repayments, two others in his

group were not so lucky. Joseph Fred Kingston pled guilty to criminal nonsupport, and one of his

prison sentences, but she obtained early release in order to care for her two severely handicapped

children.49

Another fraud case involved Thomas Green, whom in August 2001 (the year before his

14 child rape conviction) a Utah judge convicted of four counts of bigamy and one count of criminal

nonsupport.i" Because of the latter conviction, the court ordered him "to pay $78,868 in

restitution to the state for welfare payments for his minor children, 25 of whom still live with

him."SI Green had been avoiding his financial obligations to his children, letting welfare cover

their costs.

Through the late 1990s:

The southern Utah town of Hilda Ie, for instance, has one of the highest welfare

participation rates in the west. Residents there, and in the next-door town of Colorado

City, Ariz[ona], have enjoyed government subsidies for years.

Taxpayers have paid for an airport, roads, fire protection and sewers, improving

property in towns where virtually all private land is owned by the polygamous church.

Taxpayers also rehabilitated church-owned homes-s-in which residents must pass a faith

test or face eviction.V

These examples from three polygamous groups reveal an attitude of entitlement amidst

personal irresponsibility among many polygamists concerning the financing of their practice.

Their attitude seems to be that God ordained their polygamous practice, so the disbelieving

Gentiles should pay for it. Since something akin to this attitude has existed among polygamist

Mormons for over a century-and-a-half, it seems endemic to the practice itself.

Bleeding the Beast provides a theological justification for an economic reality of

polygamous life: many families are poor and frequently rely upon forms of social assistance to

15

survrve, As anthropologist Janet Bennion concluded about the Allred community:

In reality, most men cannot feed and clothe all the children, much less their wives, especially in the impoverished Bitterroot [Montana] area. They are often not around to help and, when they do contribute, it has to be divided among the different households.

To deal with the unpredictability in material resources, women have to find work outside the community and rely on their sisterwives or other women to care for their children; borrow and trade with other women who have more resources; build up an in-house industry, such as beekeeping gardening, massage therapy, herbalism, or midwifery, which makes an excellent bargaining chip in the female network: bring in goods from outside family; rely on income and domestic help from their older children; or scrounge or steal goods from stores, government service offices, and others' homes and gardens.r'

Speaking generally about a number of groups, historian D. Michael Quinn observed:

In fact, outside work for plural wives is common because polygamist families in an urban-suburban setting almost always struggle financially. Polygamous husbands frequently have more than one job, and children grow up with a constant awareness of the family's limited resources. [One of Quinn's informants told him that "m]ost of the children in her extended family begin working full time as teenagers.... So polygamist families are working families for young and old, male and female."

In Short Creek during the 19508, the financial requirement of tithing put such a strain even on men who earned wages outside of the community that leaders came to rely upon women's

16

welfare and social security checks to finance expansion projects.f

8. Marriages, Sexuality, and the State

Thus far I have provided evidence that polygamy, as practiced by the fundamentalist Mormons, inherently violates a number of human rights and laws, but now I will discuss why it is distinguishable from same-sex marriage. In essence, polygamous practice is not analogous legally to same-sex practices. I begin this discussion by referring to the Reynolds decision.

While Chief Justice Waite referred to marriage as a contract, his mention of "social relations and social obligations with which government is necessarily required to deal" provides the basis for seeing marriage as a legal status. The state confers that legal status as a relationship between two people as a unit and the rest of the community.i'' In the Potter case, the United States Court of Appeals listed a number of rights and obligations that the status of marriage conveys, ranging from inheritance, child support and protection, premarital counseling, etc. 57 One could add privileges such as decision-making concerning the termination of medical treatment, legal exemptions from court testimony against a spouse." the protection of confidential communications between spouses, 59 the protection of confidential communication between spouses, income tax exemptions, rights to sue on behalf of one's spouse,60 pension and medical benefits, etc. Marriage, therefore, is not merely a contract; it is a social and legal status that gives the parties special legal rights and obligations. While the exact privileges will vary between Canada and the United States, the basic principles remain similar.

Legalization of polygamy would demand a complete re-working of existing marital-

17

related legislation, causing financial imbalance between multiple spouses and possibly their children on the one hand and non-polygamous citizens on the other hand. On issues involving such topics as pensions and inheritance, legal adjustments for polygamists likely would disadvantage polygamists themselves, as payments would get divided (and hence dissipated) among numerous recipients. Moreover, the current tax-filing problems that Winston Blackmore and his wives are having in Canada highlights the kinds of problems that occur around financial obligations within polygamous marriages.

Such massive reworking oflaws related to marital status, however, need not occur when states or countries legalize same-sex marriages. In essence, the same arrangements that exist in law for heterosexual marriage partners simply extend to homosexual partners. Legal actions involving one issue have no bearing upon the other. As concluded by legal scholar Maura 1. Strassberg:

The practice of same-sex marriage would not lead to despotism or undermine democracy, as the Reynolds Court feared polygamy would, nor would it undermine the way in which heterosexual marriage functions to teach, in a deep and concrete way, the lesson that the apparent sacrifices of individuality, required by the community, ultimately reestablish and strengthen individuality."

Problems endemic to many Mormon fundamentalist polygamist communities----such as genetic abnormalities and medical risks caused by young (and possibly old) females' pregnancies-simply have no bearing on analyses of same-sex marriages. At its core, polygamy is not problematic because of the multiple sexual partners to which men gain access; it is problematic

18 because of the foundational status of monogamous marriage to aspects of civil and family law, in

addition to serious human rights abuses that appear in so many polygamous groups. Similarly,

polyamory (simplistically defined as having more than one partner) and homosexuality should

not concern the law as long as the relationships involve consenting adults, in the absence of

children, doing no obvious or demonstrable harm to themselves or others.62

As a form of marriage, polygamy suffers the opprobrium of international human rights

condemnation. The 1994 "General Recommendations Made by the Committee on the

Elimination of Discrimination against Women" was clear and blunt:

Polygamous marriage contravenes a woman's right to equality with men, and can have

such serious emotional and financial consequences for her and her dependents that such

marriages ought to be discouraged and prohibited. The Committee notes with concern

marriage in accordance with personal or customary law. This violates the constitutional

rights of women, and breaches article 5 (a) of the Convention.63

Article 5 to which this passage refers directs:

States Parties shall take all appropriate measures: (a) To modify the social and cultural

patterns of conduct of men and women with a view to achieving the elimination of

prejudices which are based on the idea of the inferiority or the superiority of either of the

sexes or on the stereotyped roles for men and women"

Canada signed the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women

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on July 17, 1980, and ratified it on December 10, 1981. 65

Having reviewed these and other international conventions and laws, Canadian human rights expert, Rebecca J_ Cook, and lD. candidate, Lisa M. Kelly, reached the following conclusions about women and children:

Polygyny isolates their rights as articulated in international human rights law. Specifically, polygyny undermines the rights of women and children in relation to family life, security, and citizenship. While the discrete human rights contained within these realms are by definition universal, it is nevertheless clear that just as the harms of polygynous unions may differ according to their context, so also may the rights violations. Significantly, however, the right to equality within marriage and the family is violated per se by polygyny, regardless of the cultural or religious context in which it is practiced/"

I agree with these statements.

9. Polygamy as a Threat to the Democratic State

While showing so many forms of harm emanating out of polygamy, Ihave not yet discussed what, historically, was the most important one: its threat to the democratic state. One of the more creative contributions to the 'polygamy/democracy harm' debate appeared in the form of an evolutionary biology perspective formulated by Canadian political scientist Tom Flanagan:

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Polygamous societies tend toward extreme authoritarianism and arbitrary government, with Draconian punishments to protect harems and control slaves and soldiers. Driven by millenniums [sic] of evolutionary pressure, young men will take extreme chances to find sexual gratification, so there have to be extreme punishments to control their libidinous passions. There is also a tendency toward permanent warfare, because plundering neighbouring peoples is the only way of satisfying the polygamous social system's limitless craving for women, slaves, and soldiers.

Polygamous, authoritarian systems may achieve imperial conquest and cultural efflorescence, but they do not favour the growth of democracy.'"

While Flanagan was basing his comments on a broad sweep of historic societies, with just slight adjustments his observations hold true for the polygamous Mormon colonies in the West. Nevertheless, I do not adopt an evolutionary biological approach about the issue, nor do I take a philosophical one, as did Maura Strassberg,. with her attempt to use Hegelian concepts to identify polygamy's anti-democratic threat.68 Instead, I synthesize recent historical material----documents, media accounts, autobiographies, academic articles, etc.-into a multifaceted analysis of fundamentalist Mormonism's challenges to free and open societies.

Such an analysis must begin with the twin towns (but single FLDS community) of Hildale and Colorado City. More-or-less left to its own for decades after the Short Creek raid in 1953, the community could have developed itself in step with the evolving-s-and increasingly pluralistic and egalitarian=democracy around it. Instead, the community created a theocracy---one that had the governmental and civic positions that other towns had, but all controlled by

21 polygamous men (never women) who answered to an unaccountable person whom they thought

to be the Prophet. Everyone in a position of civic power-the town council, the mayor, the town

clerk-were polygamists, elected by ballot, but only with one candidate per office according to

the wishes ofleading spiritual figure of the period.l" Over time, polygamists filled other

prominent positions-the school board, the local doctor, a judge, and the police force.7o In fact,

the Colorado City Law Enforcement Agency that civic leaders created during the 1960s, "had no

recognized civil authority whatsoever and was only established so the Polygamist leaders could

better control their young members.,,7! Specifically the "paramount duty" of Peace Officer Sam

Barlow "was to make sure that the boys would not associate with the girls. At his discretion, he

would run the undesirable boys out of town ... ".72 Polygamous leaders wanted the young girls

available to themselves as additional plural brides. In my opinion, this practice of running boys

out of town constitutes an abuse of power and manipulation of young persons' minds and bodies

for ostensibly religious ends.

We know far less about the operating structures of other polygamous groups, but all of

them seem to have authoritarian, supposedly divinely blessed men at the center of power. So,

when the leader of the True and Living Church in Manti, Utah (James Harmston) wrote an angry

letter to his youngest bride (forty-three years his junior) about her refusal to sleep with him, he

signed it, "Your Husband, King and Priest," and then circulated it to five more of his eighteen

spouses." He saw his wives as his vassals or subjects, certainly not as equal partners in the

public and private status as life-partners.

Few people realize what role a polygamist doctor played in maintaining the polygamists'

22 authoritarian reign over the community, especially over its young girls. The FLDS physician for

both Hildale and Yearning for Zion was Dr. Lloyd H. Barlow, who began his practice sometime

after 1999.74 He would have known a great deal about sexual abuses in the FLDS community,

since he was delivering babies and doing examinations. One notes with discomfort, therefore,

that Texas authorities have charged him with "three misdemeanor counts of failure to report child

abuse.?" although even ifhe had reported incidents to a law enforcement officer who had the

mentality and skills-level of someone like Sam Roundy, the report would have gone nowhere.

(Roundy was the officer who admitted not having forwarded up to two dozen child abuse reports

to Child and Family Services.j'" Unexplored in any academic or legal analysis, however, is how

he (or possibly another doctor) may have been using mental health facilities and even a

I conclude my report by challenging the opinion that William John Walsh provided this

court in his Affidavit dated June 07, 2010. In a section entitled, "The Doctrine of Agency,"

Walsh argued "It is important to note that this institution [of polygamy] is entered into

voluntarily by the FLDS,.q4 By "agency," Walsh means something along the lines of "free

chosen or voluntary action," and in this regard insists that "the doctrine of agency [as espoused in

Mormonism] means people are not forced into polygamy.r" The facts, however, that I present in

this reference opinion come to an opposite conclusion-many people's involvement in polygamy

is coerced. Numerous facts led me to this conclusion. They include: the frequency of arranged

marriages and leaders' control over teenage girls' potential dating partners. Likewise, many

26 polygamous mothers are young and find themselves in impoverished marriage arrangements--

both of which severely curtail educational opportunities (partly because of financial pressures to earn money for the family). Dissent against leadership or the institution of polygamy may land some women in psychiatric institutions. Finally, the patriarchal, anti-democratic nature of polygamous communities disempower women, both individually and collectively, from making informed choices about their individual and collective lives. All of these factors, often working in combination, limit people's ability to freely choose involvement in polygamy.

Pince-Nez Press 2004], 26); 40,000 (Humphrey Hawksley, "Quest to Legalize Polygamy in Utah," BBC News (21 March 2009), downloaded from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/- 12/hi/programmes/from our own correspondent!7953270.stm> on 4 May, 2009); and a figure given by a polygamist opposition group, Tapestry Against Polygamy, as being closer to 100,000 (cited in Moore-Emmett, God's Brothel, 26). Similarly, sometimes widely varying figures exist regarding the numbers of people in each of the numerous polygamous groups. Anne Wilde, who directs the pro-polygamy group, Principle Voices, indicates that surveys her organization did

28

with polygamous leaders yielded the following figures: the Fundamentalist Latter-day Saints under Warren Jeffs has 10,000 followers; the Apostolic United Brethren (the Allreds) has 7,500 members; the Kingstons have 1500 members; and 3000 affiliate with groups of a few hundred or less. Perhaps 15,000 are "independents" are not part of any large group, and often primarily involve one family whose members center around one man. Some of these independents remain within mainstream Mormonism, unbeknownst to Mormon officials (Carrie Moore and Elaine Jarvik, "Plural Lives: the Diversity of Fundamentalism," Deseret News [9 September 2006]). A researcher, however, who studied the Allreds in 1989 and into the 1990s estimated their numbers to be around 10,000 (Janet Bennion, Women of Principle: Female Networking in Contemporary Mormon Polygyny [New York: Oxford, 1998], 160 n.7). For brief histories of the FLDS and the Apostolic United Brethren, see Altman and Ginat, Polygamous Families, 48-56.

4 Jonathan Turner and Alexandra Maryanski, Incest: Origins of the Taboo (London: Paradigm Publishers, 2005), 1. I realize, however, that legal definitions of incest vary among the states and Canada.

5 Joseph Smith married at least one mother/daughter pair, and likely had a child with the daughter (Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith [Salt Lake City:

Signature Books, 1997], 171-204). He also married at least two sets of sisters (Compton, In Sacred Loneliness, 288-305, 473-485). Likewise, Brigham Young also married sisters (Fanny Stenhouse, 'Tell It All:' The Story of a Life's Experience in Mormonism [Hartford: A.D. Worthington, 1874],277-278), and Ann- Eliza Young's 1876 critique of her former group claimed, "The marriage of mother and daughter to one man was so common an occurrence that it ceased to be regarded as anything out of the ordinary course of events" (Wife No. 19, of The

29

Story of Bondage, Being a Complete Expose of Mormonism, and Revealing the Sorrows, Sacrifices, and Sufferings of Women in Polygamy [Hartford: Dustin, Gilman & Co., 1876], 320). Incestuous examples in early Mormonism were the subject of an article on them in a medical journal in 1915 (Theodore Schroeder, "Incest in Mormonism," American Journal of Urology and Sexology 11 [1915]: 409-416). For mention of contemporary mother-daughter marriages in the Allreds, see Bennion, Women of Principle, 162 n. 22.

9 Ray Rivera, "When Incest Becomes a Religious Tenet: Inbreeding Key to Doctrine of Keeping Bloodline Pure," Salt Lake Tribune (25 April 1999): AI, A16. The Kingstons "are most known for the large number of underage marriages they perform and have the highest number of incestuous marriages and the highest natural birth of any other group" (Bennion, Evaluating the Effects of Polygamy, 21).

pachygria, an abnormally thick 1-1.5 em cortex, and associated changes such as hypogenesis of the corpus callosum and enlarged posterior portions of the lateral ventricles." Its classical manifestations "consist of severe or profound mental retardation, feeding problems, and intractable epilepsy including frequent infantile spasms." It has a genetic component (William B. Dobyns, "The Genetic Basis of Malformations of Neuronal Migration: Molecular Mechanisms and Clinical Correlation," in Abnormal Cortical Development and Epilepsy: From Basis to Clinical Science, edited by Roberto Spreafico, Giuliano Avanzini, and Frederick Andermann [London: John Libbey & Company, 1999],266; 267).

22 What appears to be a different type of genetic disorder=mental illness--afflicts members of another polygamous group, the LeBarons. The LeBaron group emanates from the offspring of Alma Dayer LeBaron and Maud McDonald, and, "of the three girls, all would suffer delusions of either grandeur or paranoia. Ofthe seven LeBaron boys, six would claim to hear voices, five would have hallucinations they interpreted as divine revelation, and four would claim to be the Lord's Prophet on earth" (Scott Anderson, The 4 0 'Clock Murders: The True Story of a Mormon Family's Vengeance [Toronto: Doubleday, 1993],50; see Ben Bradlee, Jr and Dale Van Atta, Prophet of Blood: The Untold Story ofErvil LeBaron and the Lambs of God [New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1981],45-61,84]; Rena Chynoweth with DeanM. Shapiro, The Blood Covenant [Austin, TX: Diamond Books, 1990], 11, 13; Verlan M. LeBaron, The LeBaron Story [Lubbock, TX: Keele & Co., 1981],60-61,66-67; Irene Spencer, Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist Wife [New York: Center Street, 2007], 43-44).

25 See Kent, "A Matter of Principle," 17. Doctrine and Covenants Section 132 purports to be a revelation that Smith received on July 12, 1843, although this date was well after he had begun the practice of plural marriage. An early section instructs, "19. And again, verily I say unto you, if a man marry a wife by my word, which is my law, and by the new and everlasting covenant ..

. , and if ye abide in my covenant ... , it shall be done unto them ... and shall be of full force when they are out of the world; and they shall pass by the angels, and the gods, which are set there, to their exaltation and glory in all things.... 20. Then shall they be gods, because they have no end .... " Presumably, a different wife helps her husband pass the angels and gods in the three heavens (identified in Section 131) and then enter into the realm of godliness itself (hence the need for at least three wives). In later sections, the reputed revelation specifically outlined polygamy: "61. And again, as pertaining to the law of the priesthood-if any man espouse a virgin, and desire to espouse another and the first give her consent, and if he espouse the second, and they are virgins, and have vowed to no other man, then he is justified; he cannot commit adultery for they are given unto him; for he cannot commit adultery with that that belongeth unto him and to no one else. 62. And ifhe have ten virgins given unto him by this law, he cannot commit adultery, for they belong to him, and they are given unto him; therefore is he justified."

33

One doctrinal reason, therefore, that polygamists desire young girls as plural brides is that these teens are likely to be virgins. The next passage is one that believers see as identifying children as soul-bearers who are beginning the process of moving toward divinity: "63. '" for [the virgins] are given unto him to multiply and replenish the earth, according to my commandment ... , and for their exaltation in the eternal worlds; that they may bear the souls of men ... " (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, "The Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" [Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1981], 268ff.).

26 For the process and numbers in the Allreds, see Bennion, Women of Principle, 5.

28 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, adopted and opened for signature, ratification and accession by General Assembly Resolution 34/180 of 18 December 1979, entry into force 3 September 1981, in accordance with Article 27(1), downloaded from: http://www.un.orglwomenwatchldaw/cedaw/text/econvention.htm on 23 June, 2009.

29 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Convention; see Rebecca 1. Cook and Lisa M. Kelly, Polygamy and Canada's Obligations Under International Human Rights Law, Family, Children and Youth Section Research Report (Ottawa: Department of Justice Canada:

38 Ken Wells, "Sharing the Wealth: A Utah Polygamy Clan is Rich, but Women Draw Welfare Benefits-e-State Recovers Part of Aid from Patriarch, Who Runs a Business Empire=-Lives of Extreme Frugality," Wall Street Journal (12 February 1985).

56 Reynolds v. United States, at 165-166; see Joseph Bozzutti, "The Constitutionality of Polygamy Prohibitions after Lawrence v. Texas: Is Scalia a Punchline or a Prophet?, The Catholic Lawyer 43 (2004): 434-435.

57 Potter v. Murray City, 760 F.2d 1065 [1985], at 1070.

58 See Best, Evidence in Trials at Common Law by John Henry Wigmore, 2008 Cumulative Supplement (New York: Wolters Kluwer 2008), 1259-1269.

Compulsory Monogamy and Polyamorous Existence," New York University Review of Law and Social Change 29 (2004), 277-376; and Maura L Strassberg, "The Challenge of Post-Modern Polygamy: Considering Polyamory,"CapitaZ University Law Review 31 (2003): 439-563.

63 United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, "Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women," General Recommendation No. 21 (13th Session, 1994): Article 16.14, downloaded from: http://www.un.org/womenwatchldaw/cedaw/recornmendations/recomm.htm on 7 July 2009.

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Fellowship Ontario Graduate Scholarship (offered)

Ontario Graduate Scholarship

TEACIDNG EXPERIENCE

2006

2005-2006

Appointed as a Fellow of the Institute for United States Policy Studies, University of Alberta

Teaching University of Alberta undergraduate courses on the Sociology of

July 2002- July 2003

July 1997 May 1992

July 1989

Fall 1988

Fall 1986

Fall 1984

1977-1983

3

Religion, Religion and Societies, Deviance and Conformity, and Religious Sects; plus graduate courses on Religious Sects and Globalization, Religion,· and Fundamentalism. All courses about religion are cross-listed with the Interdepartmental Program in Religious Studies

Associate Chair-Graduate, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta

Full Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta

Adjunct Professor, Department of Religious Studies, University of Alberta

Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Alberta - Religious Sects (including a graduate course); Sociology of World Religions

Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of AlbertaDeviance, Religion, and Introduction to Sociology.

Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Waterloo (Ontario) - Sociological Theory; Social Movements; Social Change; Ideology and Belief, Systems; Social Psychology.

Teaching Assistant, Department of Religious Studies, McMaster UniversityThe Social- Psychological Dimension of Religion; Cults in North America; Psychology and Religion; Sociology of Religion; Comparative Religion; The Possibility of Religion in the Modern World.

Book: From Slogans to Mantras: Social Protest and Religious Conversion in the Late Vietnam War Era. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press (2001). Selected by Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries as an "Outstanding Academic Title" for 2002.

9) "Psychological and Mystical Interpretations of Early Quakerism: William James and

Rufus Jones," Religion 17 (1987): 251-274.

10) "Psychology and Quaker Mysticism: The Legacy of William James and Rufus Jones," Quaker History 76 no. 1 (Spring 1987): 1-17.

11) "Puritan Radicalism and the New Religious Organizations: Seventeenth Century England and Contemporary America," Comparative Social Research 10, (1987): 3-46.

12) "Slogan Chanters to Mantra Chanters: A Mertonian Deviance Analysis of Conversion to the Religious Organizations of the Early 1970s," Sociological Analysis 49 no. 2 (1988): 104-118; Reprinted in Sights on the Sixties, edited by Barbara L. Tischler. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1992.

3) (second author with Gordon Drever). "Gods From Afar," in Edmonton: The Life of a City. Edited by Bob Hesketh and Frances Swyripa. Edmonton: NeWest Press (1995): 275-282.

4) "Brainwashing Programs in The Family/Children of God and Scientology." in Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field. Edited by Benjamin Zablocki and Thomas Robbins. Toronto: University of Toronto Press: 2001: 349-378.

5) "Compelling Evidence: A Rejoinder to Lorne Dawson's Chapter." in Misunderstanding Cults: Searching for Objectivity in a Controversial Field. Edited by Benjamin Zablocki and Thomas Robbins. Toronto: University of Toronto Press: 2001:401-411.

6) "Seven Thousand 'Hand-Maids and Daughters of the Lord': Lincolnshire and Cheshire Quaker Women's Anti-Tithe Protests in Late Interregnum and Restoration England." In Women, Gender and Radical Religion in Early Modern Europe. Edited by Sylvia Brown. Leiden: E.J. Brill: 2007: 65-96.

7) "Post World War II New Religious Movements in the West." In The World's Religions: Continuities and Transformations. 2nd Edition. Edited by Peter Clarke and. Peter Beyer. New York: Routledge: 2008: 492-510.

8) "Harm, Human Rights, and the Continued Criminalization of Fundamentalist Mormon Polygamy." Fundamentalism, Politics, and the Law. Edited by Marci Hamilton and Mark Rozell. New York: Palgrave: 2011 (forthcoming).

3) Said Arjomand, The Shadow of God and the Hidden Imam: Religion, Political Order, and Societal Change in Shi'ite Iran from the Beginning to 1890. Sociological Analysis 47 no.4 (Winter 1987): 369-370.

10) James D. Chancellor, Life in The Family: An Oral History of the Children of God.

Nova Religio 8 No.1 «July 2004): 108-112.

RELATED EXPERIENCE

Occasional reviewer, Journalfor the Scientific Study of Religion; Social Science Federation of Canada; Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion; Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; Religion; Nova Religio, Current Sociology; Cultic Studies Review; Journal of Religion and Popular Culture.

Spring 2004 Editorial Advisory Committee, Journal of Religion and Popular Culture to Present

2002 to Present

Editorial Board, Cultic Studies Review

1990 to Present

Lecturer to various professional and civic organizations on non-traditional religions.

1997 Filed an Expert Report, and Testified for the Alberta Ministry of Justice, Family Law Division, in a child visitation case (Report Filed October 20, 1997), and testified in the trial [concerning ritual abuse and Satanism],

1998 "Bridge Publications, Inc. v. F.A.C.T.NET, Inc., Lawrence Wollershehn, and Robert Penny" United States District Court for the District of Colorado. Civil Action No. 95-K-2143. Expert Statement on Behalf of Defendant [Concerning Scientology]. (February 16).